Interning for Alexander McQueen, as told to the Guardian:
“Most days I worked from 8.30 in the morning until at least 2am,” he says. “We usually worked seven days a week and some of the interns got really tired because of the hours.”
Cassidy also claims the company relied on interns to carry out core work. “In the pattern making department there were 10 interns and only five paid staff. In embroidery there was just one designer and 10 interns.”
In May last year, after eight months of unpaid work, he quit. “I left because it was obvious there was virtually no chance of getting a job there,” he says. “They would have been happy for me to continue, but I just couldn’t afford to go on working for nothing. I had already done five unpaid fashion internships elsewhere.”
Employment law expert Timothy Brennan QC says companies who use interns in the way described by Cassidy could be breaking national minimum wage rules.
1 Response to ““Most days I worked from 8.30 in the morning until at least 2am””